Strike of Luck
by SocialReject212
Summary: Since the age of eight, Ichigo has suffered greatly. Misfortune follows him wherever he goes. Now he finds himself being impaled by part of a tree from a lightning strike on campus. Who's the blue haired student at multiple incidents and their entwined fate? What about the unseen force that's after his life? GrimmIchi, AU. Please, Please, Review :)


**NOTE: This is an updated version of chapter 1, please read the Author Note at the bottom of the chapter.**

**Chapter 1: Struck Down**

A flash of pale blue light streaked across the stormy night. The booming thunder reverberated across the campus as the sound wave bounced off the various building seconds after the brilliant flash. Another lightning bolt branched across the heavens, illuminating the midnight sky, followed by more streaks of electricity tearing at the heavens. The thunder rolling across the town like a jet engine preparing to take off, muffling the sound of the mild wind blowing debris across the roads and ruffling the hair of the students out observing the brilliant dance of electricity in the night sky.

University students were continuously filing out into the electric filled night, _ooh_ing and _aw_ing at particular strikes of lightning, chatting excitedly about the rarity of the storm, and even laughed when some foreign students started performing a rain dance while holding their lit phones above their heads.*

However, one of the many students that remained clueless of the storm found himself completely isolated from the outside world in one of the resident hall study rooms. With the bleak gray curtains drawn closed, the classical music of Hans Zimmer to Peter Ilyinch Tchaikovsky playing softly from computer speakers as chocolate-colored eyes traced over the words displayed on the screen. Tanned fingers ghosted over the keys of the laptop, correcting a formula typo in the introduction of the chemistry lab report.

Scanning the rest of the document, adding and erasing information, and making sure to save the report one last time before emailing it to his lab professor. Ichigo sighed, slumping back into chair, his tired eyes drooping closed as he rubbed his face.

The orange haired adult remained in that position for several minutes, letting the melodies and harmonies of Vivaldi wash over him, calming his stressed and exhausted mind as his fingers danced absentmindedly over the gold and black amulet chained around his neck. Sighing at the relief of no longer having that report on his shoulders, the redhead closed the computer, and packed his things before heading sluggishly to his room.

Sliding his university card into his suite door, he shoved the wood barrier to his suite open. The student walked into the common room, noticing instantly that both of his suite-mates were still up judging by the light shining under their doors. Opening the door to his own room, the orangette wasn't surprised to find his blonde haired best friend sitting on his bed in front of the window. Silently groaning, he threw his bag and card on the foot of the bed before addressing his friend tiredly.

"Shinji, although I'm happy to see you've made yourself at home, again, what are you doing here? It's nearly eleven thirty and I have p-chem first thing in the morning." Since the bed was occupied the orangette settled for sitting at the desk with his head resting on his crossed arms, ignoring as the blond jumped excitedly from the twin sized bed.

"Ichi, where've you been for the last two hours? Yer cell was off and ya weren't online!" The blonde whined at the other younger male, and when he realized the redhead wasn't giving him the light of day his bottom stuck out in the form of a pout. "Hey, are ya even list—"

Groaning, the engineering scholar sat backup, interrupting the architecture undergraduate. "Yeah, yeah, I'm listening Shin. I'm just exhausted, only gotten bout fifteen hours of sleep in the last few days. I'm running on empty, and to answer your question, I was finishing my _late_ lab report in the study room ignoring you _and_ everyone else in the world. Now, what's got your thong in a twist?" Finally turning in his chair, his lips morphed into a small smirk as his eyes met with his pouting friend's eyes.

"That's not fair Ichi, ya know how comfortable my panties are and don't deny it. I specifically remember you wearing my electric blue G-string last month. And if I remember ya were appreciating them yerself!" The blond haired junior's Cheshire grin splitting his face in two as he leered at his best friend.

Spluttering incredibly, Ichigo flushed at the memory. "Hey, you guys got me piss drunk that night and once everyone was gone you took advantage of me while I was in that state, _asshole_!" Muttering the last word under his breath, he was not remotely surprised when Shinji's grin grew even wider, knowing too well that the blonde's excellent hearing caught it. It was misfortunate for Ichigo, and many others, that the blonde gossiper possessed ears more sensitive than a bat.

Facing away from the other, the orangette glanced out the window for the first time in several hours, shocked as four strikes of lightning lit up the pitch black sky before the darkness of the night claimed the town temporary once more. Once again, slender fingers found themselves automatically tracing the pattern etched into the heirloom given to him by his godfather.

Noticing that the redhead finally saw the storm brewing to the west, Shinji brought up the reason he was in the engineer's room. "Ya've been missing a fantastic thunderstorm. That's why I've been searching for ya, there's no rain yet. I was hoping you would keep me company outside while I watch the lightning and wait for Nnoi to pick me up. Said he got an idea from the storm and planned something for me tonight." The blonde ended the statement with a silly love-sick smile taking over his features, not noticing the slight twitching and blank stare of the orangette.

Ichigo snapped out of his nightmarish flashback of pouring rain and fresh blood after a few seconds, placing a faux smirk on his face when he commented on Shinji's dreamy schoolgirl-crush look, expecting the _sigh_ at any moment.

"How romantic." He said teasingly. "Ya know he's only going to take you to the center of the storm and fuck you in the back seat of his truck right?" The red haired male rolled his eyes at the mock glare set his way. He stood up and opened the door, beaconing the confused blonde man out of his room.

"Thought you wanted me to join you outside while you waited for Nnoitra?" Within seconds the blonde flew out his room and was standing in the suite's common room, impatiently tapping his foot while the other male slid his flip-flops on. Chuckling, the male followed, only to pause to look back as his giant suitemate Chad emerged from his own room, keys in his hand.

Ichigo greeted him as the man nodded in acknowledgement. "Hey Chad, heading out?" It was kind of odd to see the man leaving at this time of night.

"Yeah, friend of mine just called, her car broke down on the way back to town. Heading out to give her a ride." The gentle giant's deep voice reverberating through the small room.

Ichigo nodded, noticing that the light from their other roommate's room was off. "Hey, did Renji go to bed or is he out?"

"Out. Headed to drink with a few friends, said he was crashing at Rukia's apartment."

"Ah." The engineering student smiled, he knew quite well the couple were having issues recently but it sounded like they worked past it. Well, mostly. Rukia, his high school friend, played sweet and innocent at a measly height of four feet eight inches but possessed the vicious temper of a demon when flared. Unfortunately, he's the one that's been subjected to her less than joyful rants for the last week about Renji forgetting their two year anniversary date.

With that, the two turned and followed the excited blonde out of the dorm into the thundering night. Parting ways, Ichigo followed Shinji toward the field of grass on the other side of one of the dorms. Immediately, the blonde was beelining for the closest available bench. Ichigo sighed as he sat down on the hard bench, enjoying the slight breeze that accompanied the stormy clouds and their electric light show. Just like Shinji promised there was no rain, though he could definitely feel the promise of it.

A shiver ran down and back up his spine as the wind whispered across his bare arms as the night sky was lit up in a pale blue, the rumbling of thunder only seconds behind. In no time, the engineer found himself rubbing his hands over the goose bumps spotting his bare arms and envious only of the warmth offered by the magenta hoodie on a sorority girl passing by, not of its _pretty_ color. Ignoring the desire to rip of the girl's jacket off her back for his own, he began to fiddle with the gold pendent, a sense of calm and even warmth spreading through his body.

"Oh! Ichi, tha' was a pretty one, ne?" Light brown eyes turned to look at chocolate hues excitedly. Ichigo could only nod, not trusting his voice to shake and indicate that he was already regretting his choice to join his friend. All he wanted was to crawl into his warm, comfortable bed and catch up on the sleep he missed. Not be outside with his friend sitting in the cold wind waiting for the other's boyfriend to show up, albeit he couldn't deny the beauty of the storm.

The two sat in relative silence, enjoying the rarity of the storm this early in the year, letting the stress of college slowly ease away. Ichigo sighed, finally over the cutting feel of the wind and closed his eyes. After a while, Ichigo glanced over Shinji's shoulder and smirked. The red head spoke up unintentionally interrupting the millionth _oh_ passing through the blonde student's lips. "So how long till Nnoi gets here?" Chocolate hues glanced back at the architecture student, to see the blonde studying his watch.

"Bou' ten mins. Why? Need to be somewhere?" The blonde cocked his head as he turned his attention his best friend, a pout forming on his lips.

Ichigo chuckled lightly. "Nah, just wanna know how much longer I gotta sit out here with ya before I could I can go ta bed," said tiredly. To involuntarily emphasize his point, a yawn escaped past his lips.

Shinji sighed, clicking his tongue in mock disappointment. "If ya want to leave little ol' me out here," he paused before his tone changed. "_All alone and defenseless_ in this thunderstorm where someone could easily take advantage of me, then shoo. It's not like I care or wanted to share this moment with ya before I ditch you for Nnoi."

The engineering student snorted at his friend, absently running his thumb over the black impression of his necklace. "Shin, we both know that if you didn't have Nnoi that if a hot guy walked by and even gave a look, it'd be _you_ taking advantage of _him._" He laughed as his best friend stuck his tongue out and muttered something about him being right.

By chance Ichigo glanced over the blonde's shoulder as a freakishly tall man snuck towards their bench. The second he caught the other's violet eye and the evil glint that shone brightly. Mentally, he laughed at the situation and focused his attention on the blonde next to him. "Sides Shin, I wouldn't miss this for the world." A smirk overtaking the orangette's lips.

Tan pools focused on him, confusion swirling in the hues as his lips morphed into a frown. It was evident the blonde was deep in contemplation and that just made Ichigo's smile even bigger. Finally, unable to take it the blonde caved. "What in the hell does that mean? One second yer complaining about how ya should be in bed and the next yer sayin that ya wouldn' miss _this_? What is _this_?"

By the end of his little rant, Shinji's frustration level with his best friend's behavior and contradictive words was reaching his ears. Ichigo watched in amusement while Shinji waved his hands in the air to emphasize the end of his question. Shinji's frustration only continued to increase when his friend's smile got even larger, a feat he hadn't seen in years, at least that was until he got his unexpected and startling answer.

Booming thunder reverberated across the courtyard the exact moment an absolutely sexy and sinfully deep voice caressed the blonde's ear. "Boo."

Usually, Shinji would transform into a pile of goo of lust after his entire nervous system was racked by shivers of desire from that husky voice. Unfortunately, for him this was not the case that night. If anyone asked in the future if he indeed screamed a high-pitch squeal that possibly broke the sound barrier and successfully attracted every student's attention in a quarter mile radius from the lightning storm, he would deny it, venomously.

He would also deny trying to end the life of his freakishly tall boyfriend and wonderfully _horrible_ best friend as they both almost died of laughter at his bright pink and scared-shitless face for one reason. It would require him to admit that did in fact scream like not one but a slumber party of girls being pranked by the evil older brother in a hockey mask with a chain-less chainsaw.

Ichigo gasped for air as he laid on the ground clutching his quaking sides as he laughed the hardest in his life. Never has he heard a sound like that escape his friend, sure he's heard some girly squeals every now and then but _that!_ That was in a universe of its own, no league could ever compete with the mixture of terror, disbelief, embarrassment and Kami knows what else on his blonde friend's face. Somehow Ichigo managed to roll so he was facing under the bench he was sitting on only seconds ago.

Gaining enough control he shifted to his other side and caught sight of the blonde's flaming blush while his hands were clamped over his mouth and his eyes like those of a doe caught in the headlights of a car going Mach 1. He didn't have to stop and comprehend his friend's expression long, he was instantly rolling on the ground again, unable to breathe as a fresh wave of laughter rocked his chest, causing a new ache to spread across his ribs. Through all the pain, laughter, and breathlessness the engineering student could hear that Nnoitra was fairing about the same as him judging by how ragged his hyena laughter was.

It took minutes for the two to calm down while the blonde only grew more frazzled, and during all of this people walking by chuckled at the scene, such as another student with in workout clothes with blue ear-buds dangling from under a black beanie to the iPod strapped to his arm. When coffee hues caught the passing students' eyes, the air in Ichigo's lungs froze in his throat. _Beautiful_. As he gazed into those abyssal pools, it was as if he was drowning. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think, nothing existed but those hypnotic eyes in an endless moment. A short-lived endless moment.

"Ichigo Kurosaki! Nnoitra fucking Jirgua! I'm going to kill you both!" Both college students knew instinctively that they should be running for their lives, that they should be getting away from the severely pissed off blonde.

Even though the architecture student used their whole names _and_ cursed, which only happened when the blonde was pissed or completely ecstatic, the fact that the same person who emitted that girly scream was impossible to take seriously at the moment. Instead of fleeing like their instincts were screeching at them to do, their laughter was renewed once more, and in a matter of moments the blue-eyed man was long forgotten to the red head.

Ichigo's eyes shot open when pain rocketed through his torso and he gasped breathlessly for the air forced from his lungs as a hundred-thirty pound lithe blonde jumped and landed in the middle of him ruthlessly. Pinpricks of tears formed in the corners of his saucer-wide espresso eyes.

If there was one thing the orange haired teen knew, it was pain of various degrees. Nowadays, the youth rarely shed a tear from any injury he sustains; however, at that moment, when over a hundred pounds of dead weight _falls_ in the middle of your being and jars old wounds, even the toughest of people crack, and he was no exception.

The engineering student blinked away the tears as he tried to intake more than a mouthful of air, only for naught. The weight of the furious blonde was suddenly gone and again jolts of pain wracked his chest and he lost the small amount of oxygen he'd managed to breathe in.

Gingerly, he held his aching middle as he slowly took in small pants working his way back to larger breaths. During all this, he didn't notice how quiet it'd become besides the rumbling thunder in the distance and the whispering wind.

Opening his closed eyes once more, the dark brown irises scanned the area failing to find the couple, only to realize they were several feet behind the forgotten bench obscuring his view. Slowly he sat up, wincing at the pain blossoming across his chest and managed to maneuver himself to lean his back against the metal bench.

The orangette tried not to whimper as his chest pains sluggishly crawled over his skin, transforming into phantom pains over various spots on his body. His quiet groan was covered by the booming thunder in the distance.

"Not tonight," he pleaded to no one silently.

"Ichi," Shinji's guilt-ridden voice attracted the boy's attention instantly. "Ichi, I'm— I'm so sorry. I forgot bout your injuries, I was just so… flustered bout Nnoi scaring me and—"

Ichigo's breathing evened out finally and all he could do was scoff at the flustered part. Rolling his espresso hues, a gesture unseen by the blonde approaching his back, the student considered letting his friend ramble on for a few minutes, but decided against it. He desperately wanted to crawl into bed, literally if the pain didn't fade to a manageable level. "Shin, just shut up, get in Nnoi's truck and go fuck like rabbits somewhere."

Shinji stopped when the orangette faced him, a faux smile plastered on the lower portion of the handsome features. At that moment all the blonde wanted to do was fuss over the other like a mother hen with her chicks. Shinji bit his lip before sticking his tongue out, pouting like a five year old, completely disregarding his protective instincts. "Fine, I will. Just don' complain when we come back and you're the godfather of fifteen gorgeous babies!"

The blonde's lips twisting in a smirk only to be mimicked by the engineer. With an exaggerated wave over his shoulder, the architecture student wandered back over to tall boyfriend, wrapping his thin arm around the others waist, Nnoitra dragged him towards the truck parked at the corner of the street.

Nnoitra's curiosity at the little exchange was visible in his good eye. Batting an eyebrow at his boyfriend's behavior, the raven haired male made sure to speak quietly while they put distance between them and the orange haired teen. The second he felt it was safe, the question dying to be asked finally flew past his lips. "What the fuck was that all about?"

Shinji rolled his eyes at his lover's crass, sarcasm thick as oil dripped from his voice as he responded. "_That_, my love, was nothing short of a red-blooded male's pride refusing to take a hit."

Sluggishly, Ichigo stood from his spot on the hard concrete and made his way inside to the 24 Hour Information area that doubled as the newer resident halls' mail room. It was also the help desk for the lost, but most often, unfortunate souls found locked out of their dorm rooms. Spotting an acquaintance of his, the engineer lifted a hand in greeting to the petite art student, receiving a meek nod of acknowledgment.

Without stopping, Ichigo kept strolling through the building and exited into the concrete and grassy courtyard, bee lining to the eighth and final building that enclosed the rectangular courtyard. Crossing the courtyard, the redhead stopped outside the red brick dorm and reached into his pocket to only freeze.

He frantically patted himself down, digging deep into his pockets. "No, please not now." Seconds later he gave up, his hands balled at his side, hissing a quiet curse. "Fuck!"

Mentally he re-lived the last twenty minutes trying to remember what happened to his university card. Searching his mind, he almost came up blank where he left his key card. The image of Shinji sitting on his bed flashed across the back of his eyes, his card sitting next to the backpack settled on the opposite end from the blonde.

"Fuck me, this can't be happening, I just want to go to bed," he groaned. He pivoted, head hung in embarrassment and frustration as he crossed the courtyard once again, entering the help desk. The door slammed shut behind him as he strolled up to the desk, raising a hand to get Ryunosuke's attention. "Sup, Yuki."

The black haired student stuttered, surprised to see Ichigo again and tried unsuccessfully to hide his blooming blush. "He-he-hey Ichigo. What's going on?"

The red head turned away, smiling sheepishly to himself as he scratched his mane of orange hair. "Um, kinda locked myself out thanks to my idiotic friend." He turned his attention to the sophomore art student, only to frown as he witnessed the light smile on Ryunosuke's face fell. "What's wrong?"

Shaking his head vigorously in hopes of dispelling his brightening flush, the raven haired desk attendant spoke hesitantly. "I-I, um... well, you see the keycard encoder i-is broken, and the replacement will get here in a half hour," his voice trailed off quietly towards the end.

Ichigo stood there, gapping silently at the help desk attendant. Finally finding his voice the oragnette spoke quickly, "you mean I'm locked out for the next half hour?" The orangette eyes were wide in disbelief.

Ryunosuke grew flustered, raising his hands in front of himself and waving them to reassure the disgruntled student, the art student spoke hastily. "No, you're not locked out for a half hour. The help desk over in the Yamamoto Complex's basement can also do keycard lockouts until ten tonight."

At that the engineering student glanced at the clock, eyes widening at the time. Five till ten. "My fucking luck," he hissed under his breath as he turned and headed towards door. He heard Ryunosuke say something but ignored it in favor of raising his hand in farewell and briskly strode out into the stormy night once again.

The wind whipped at his clothes and hair the instant the door opened. A chill swept over his skin raising goose bumps on every inch of skin. Ichigo spared a glance at the sky, mentally thanking Mother Nature for the lack of rain. He started to jog in the direction of the largest dormitory on the other side of the field of grass he and Shinji were only minutes earlier but stopped after only a few steps his eyes scanning the distance.

Ichigo watched in disbelief as a gust of wind rippled through the campus, trash and leaves dancing violently and gracefully to the wind's passionate song while students struggled to remain upright. What truly stopped him in his tracks was the wall of rain that finally poured from the sky as if his prayer of thanks had been the cue for the black storm clouds to release the built up moisture in the atmosphere.

As if a dam had broken, it took seconds for the young adult to be completely drenched and chilled to the bone in the suddenly torrential storm. Ichigo's hair was matted to skull, his hair appearing nearly brown now in the poor lighting and rain. Cold water dripped from his bangs bouncing off his nose and his lips that were noiselessly moving in a repetitive fashion as he chanted his wordless mantra in his mind. _It's only rain, it's only rain. Get a hold of yourself. It's only rain._

Opening his coffee hue eyes, he shook his head in an attempt to unsuccessfully dislodge the water gathering in his hair and to force down the tragic memories of his childhood. The thought of being in his room and out of the freezing and tormenting storm was the motivation that kicked him into action as he ran through the stinging icy pellets and slicing wind. However, another thought rang in the back of his mind, one that had plagued him since _that_ day of his childhood. _Why am I a walking jinx that possesses no luck?_

** – *** – **

Grimmjow growled as he shoved the door to the student recreation center open harshly, slightly surprised when the wind snagged it from his hands and slammed it into the wall. Grunting in annoyance the blue-haired male decided that nothing was going his way today. Ever since his last class of the day ended, his friends notified him that they were cancelling their plans to play flag football for the night due to the storm. At first, he sneered and laughed, telling them that the thunderstorm heading their way was probably only going to last a measly half hour or just pass by.

In hindsight that was rather ignorant of him, something he would never admit aloud, considering the freak weather they experience in this god-awful town. Not even six weeks ago the weather in this town couldn't make up its mind on what it wanted to do. One minute it was sunny, the two minutes later it was raining, then that rain turned to snow, and from that to rain with some gusty winds, then to sun then to freaking hail and finally back to sun with a light breeze for the rest of the day. All within in a fucking half hour. **

He took out an ebony beanie and pulled it on over his damp blue mane before removing his phone from the pocket of his shorts. Seeing no new notifications he stuffed it back into his pocket before starting his trek across campus to his car, music blaring through his cobalt ear-buds. He glanced through the curtain of rain over at the nearly empty parking lot meant for the rec center and mentally snarled at the fact it was completely packed not even half an hour ago when he arrived. Because of this he was forced to park in one of the lots on the opposite side of the Yamamoto Center.

Cursing the buckets of water falling from the heavens and his absent workout buddy, Grimmjow reluctantly trekked through the storming weather. Nothing was going right today, that was for damn sure. The student silently snarled at the thought. First, his friends cancelled their hangout. Second, the thunderstorm that was supposed to pass by them didn't. Instead the rain was now gushing from the sky while the wind cut through you like a knife through warm butter. Finally, his workout buddy, Edrad, who had first approached him two hours ago cancelled their workout twenty minutes _after_ the time they agreed to hit the gym in favor of going on an impromptu date with his girlfriend.

Sapphire eyes squinted through the stinging rain as he crossed the road between the dorms and the rec center. By the time he crossed the street Grimmjow was soaked from head to foot, water dripped from his hat and his basketball shorts clung to his sculpted legs like ivy on an old brick building. He was about to round the first dormitory when he noticed the empty bench from earlier. His eyes brighten in recognition and a small smirk lifted the corner of his lips as the scene from earlier played over in his mind.

He'd been on his way to the rec when he saw them. He recognized all three of them, one of them actually being one of his best buddies from high school, the blond being the guy's boyfriend, and _him_.

Ichigo.

The blunette smirked, only knowing the kid's name since they shared partial differential equations last semester. That and the kid's name meant strawberry. He chuckled at that, but only frowned at the memories of the redhead last semester.

He was sure that the kid didn't even know Grimmjow existed, not that he blamed the kid. The blunette actually avoided everyone until recently. But that was neither here nor there at the moment, all that mattered was his soft, silky sky blue hair was back to its former glory.

Nevertheless, since the 'Café Incident' downtown occurred the redhead changed and all interest that the blunette held went up in a puff of smoke. Though, to this day he still didn't know why the redhead changed.

Grimmjow glanced at the bench once more before continuing his journey down the sidewalk as his mind wandered. Seemed like the kid finally got himself out the ditch or whatever crisis he found himself in. The senior student walked around the corner of the dorm, the wind coming straight at him. The senior's gaze turned skyward, a small sigh of relief escaping his lips as he realized that the rain was letting up, becoming only a drizzle. 'The fucking weather in this town,' he thought.

A bright flash of light lit the concrete patio in front of the Rukongai Hall while the booming thunder rolled across the campus. Grimmjow looked up at the tall building, scoffing at its appearance. In favor of ignoring it and the less than pleasant memories it brought up from his freshman year, the blunette turned his gaze forward and kept walking. The concrete area was lined with a few trees and overflowing bike racks that were haphazardly chained together. In the center, an awkward sculpture of concrete, bricks and metal. The rest of the area was rather open before it led up to the dorm steps or off to the parking lot adjacent to the old building.

However, what truly caught the senior's attention was the miserable-looking kid walking into the space on the opposite side of the ugly sundial. Seemed like the student had light brown hair that slightly hung over the other's eyes, no coat, rather than shoes he wore flip-flops, was drenched to the bone in freezing water, and his soaked white shirt completely translucent and clung to the sharp torso like a scared child to its safety blanket. Grimmjow licked his lips. The guy was lithe and muscular and the blunette could even see the boy's dusty nipples. Oh the things he would do to that body.

Just as that thought crossed the senior's mind, the boy stopped in his tracks. Grimmjow watched slowed down and observed the male as he tilted his head towards the sky. The senior let out a small gasp of recognition at the boy's face. The blunette actually stopped in his tracks, completely mesmerized with the scene before him.

He watched as the redhead held out his arms out in front of himself, turning his gaze to them as if inspecting them. Snapping out of his reprieve, Grimmjow rounded the sculpture, eyebrow raised at the scene in front of him. The kid was turning his arms over looking at the back of his hands then to his palms.

The blunette was only ten feet away from the other when he felt every hair on his body stood up suddenly. Grimmjow stopped again, his eyes focusing automatically on his arms and frowned. It felt like someone took several balloons and rubbed them all over his skin. That's when it clicked. Static electricity. His head whipped up before a voice yelled in panic at him. His eyes widened in recognition as espresso hues met azure pools and at the terror that filled the kid's scream.

"RUN!" That was when the world flashed white and all hell broke loose as lightning struck the tree only feet behind the orangette.

** – *** – **** – *** – **

* Okay, so during my junior year of college this storm actually happened at my campus (during March 2012). The center of the storm, where it was the worst, was 8 miles away, directly above the next town over so we were towards the edge. My friends and I walked outside to watch the lightning for a while. The town next to us was getting poured on and we just had the wind. My friends and I were outside and we noticed that there were foreign students dancing with their phones lit. We heard someone say that they were performing a rain dance, but I never found out if that was true.

Also, the wall of wind and rain I mentioned happened, though not quite as described in this, as soon as we got inside it started pouring. I was randomly thinking 'what if one of the trees got struck by lightning' then this story idea popped into my mind and I ran with it.

** I kid you not this actually happened my sophomore year during February. My friends and I were studying for midterms and we watched out the kitchen windows of our dorm as this unusual weather change occurred. Within a half hour we experience 5 different weather conditions multiple times.

Side note, how many of you have seen people do strange things during a storm? During this storm, my friend's girlfriend found us after we went back inside and told us she'd just passed a guy standing outside in nothing but his boxer-briefs holding a football. It was completely random, and awkward lol.

**UPDATE! (6/30/13)**

**I am so, so, so sorry that I am now updating my story and that it's not a new chapter. I received a lot of criticism on the original posting of the first chapter. Both good and bad, but for me that's good. I replied to most of those that did give me feedback. If I never got back to you, I apologize. **

**Right after I posted this in January I had health issues, college picked up again, I got really sick, my car got broken into, and so much more. In short, it's been a crappy year for me. Currently, I've had a cold for nearly 2 months and have had 4 ear infections cause of it, if that's any indication of my year so far. **

**So please keep all of this in mind as this story progresses, I may be really busy or not feeling well enough to work on this. Please be patient if it seems really slow, but I'm unable to work on this as much I wish. I **_**am**_** constantly thinking of this story, I just have trouble finding time to actually write down my ideas. **

**For those who read this the first time, you may have noticed that the chapter is shorter. I took the excess ending that confused some of you and I am starting the next chapter with that ending as a transition. Also, I changed a few things, but not much; mostly grammar and to improve the flow of the story. For example, I changed Kaien to Renji; and the 'Accident' to the 'Café Incident' and removed some extraneous details that made it difficult to read. **

**Well, that's all I have for now. Until the next chapter :)**


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